


The Littlest Berserker

by Esmethewitch



Series: Esme's Original Short Fics [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, Berserker - Freeform, Gen, If You Squint - Freeform, Inspired by Norse Mythology, Non-Sexual Submission, POV Outsider, War, implied trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-24 07:43:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18566947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esmethewitch/pseuds/Esmethewitch
Summary: A knight stumbles into a clearing, where he observes how an unlikely member of his army's shock troops deals with having nothing to fight. An exercise in writing fight scenes and complicated relationships.





	The Littlest Berserker

The knight heard a woman’s frenzied shrieks as he approached the roadside clearing. His blood chilled. Even in war, some vestiges of civilization must be maintained. The vows he swore obliged him to protect the weak. There was nothing else for it. He dismounted, pulled his sword from the scabbard, and rushed into the trees, hacking down the brambles that barred his way.

A blonde girl was slung over the shoulder of a man wearing a helm and full mail, and he was struggling to keep hold of her legs as she swung her body around and hammered at his back with her fists. Her screams turned to a primal wail without words, while her captor attempted to soothe her.

“I will release you as soon as you calm down, Adis,” he said. “But now you are being...aargh!” A well-placed knee to the gut had him bent over, agonized. _How had the girl done it? That must have hurt with the mail. She’s probably shredded up her fists trying to beat him. The man must be a monster._

Free from the clutches of the dishonorable soldier, she rushed towards the knight. “Milady, I will defend---” But a powerful right hook to his face cut him off. He heard a crunch as his nose broke, and felt a warm gush of blood. He could have cut her down as she was unarmed, but he was expecting a rescue, not a fight.

Through a haze, he saw the helmed man grab Adis from behind, one arm around her neck. He slammed her to the ground, face-down. She was now pinned with a knee in her back. The girl’s arms swung in wild circles as she beat the dying brown grass beneath her.

“Fight the earth, if it would make this end sooner. You have not won anyone’s trust today. The longer we stay out here, the less likely the Captain will be to let you out without me.”

This prompted a low growl from the young woman. She twisted her arms free of her foe’s grasp and pushed herself up to her knees, rolling the bigger fighter off her back. She jumped on top of him and pulled his helm off. The man’s face was heavily bruised, with one eye swelling shut. The blonde girl punched him in the chin, but was trapped again as he rolled over. This time, she looked up at her captor’s face. She gasped.

“Holy Erp! Did I do all of that to you?”

“Yes, and you laid out the guards Valia and Jano. They will live, though they do not look as pretty as me right now. Jano managed to get the sword out of your hands before you could do too much damage. Then the duty runner sent for me. ”

The knight realized that the “man” was really a woman, with dark hair twisted into a crown of braids.

“I am sorry.” Adis started to cry. “It’s just that I...I needed a fight. It’s been too long.”

“Are you done now?”

“Think so. My feelings are coming back. I’m getting the end of it...ugh. Why did I lose it this time, Reni?”

“We would all like to know the answer to that question.” Reni ran her fingers over her puffy face, wincing.

“What’s the damage this time?” Adis asked wretchedly.

“Black eye and my beauty. This is the last time I try to get you out of it without putting on full plate and a helm first. At least we now know that the theory about you being calmer around exposed faces is wrong.”

They were silent for a minute. “If you didn’t have your gear right there,” Adis mused, “I could have taken you down and made it to the village.”

“That is a possibility, yes.”

The knight staggered over to them, trying to staunch the bleeding. The women stared. Adis glanced at his bloody face, then lowered her gaze to the ground.

“She’s a berserker,” Reni said, as if that explained everything.

The unlikely berserker ripped a strip of cloth from the hem of her skirt and passed it to him. “Here. Sorry I broke your nose. I’ve hit a lot of people. It’s not personal.”

The knight took it. “Thangs. I thought that berserkers were all giants of men who could bite through shields in their fury, not…” He trailed off, spitting out blood. He'd had a broken nose before. It wasn't fun, but it would heal. If this skinny little thing was truly a berserker, he was lucky that this was the extent of his injuries.

“Not short women? Size doesn’t matter if the rage is there. If Reni here had cut me up, I would keep going until I bled out. Fortunately she didn’t.” Adis turned to Reni and gently embraced the larger woman. “Thank you for what you’ve done today. I’m sorry.” She rested her head on Reni’s shoulder, letting tears and blood mingle and drip onto the plate. Iron on iron.

“Why are you so angry?” the knight asked.

Adis and Reni both laughed. “I don’t know if there’s anyone alive who has watched Adis get _angry,_ ” Reni told him. “Peeved, yes. Scared, I’ve seen that. But never angry.”

“I’m not angry now,” Adissaid softly. “I’m not sure what I just finished was anger. It was kind of a trance. But I have every right to be.” She glanced up at the other woman, her guard? Her friend? Comrade? Sometime lover? The knight wasn’t sure. There was passion in the way they fought each other. There were many kinds of passion, though. 

Reni positioned herself so Adis was under her right arm, held there like a chick beneath its mother’s wing. “She does,” Reni said. Adis leaned into her, and they staggered over to a log and sat down. The blonde girl’s head slid into her friend, lover, or long-suffering comrade’s lap. The plate was no pillow, but she seemed comfortable enough. Reni began stroking her hair. “It’s alright, love. It’s over. I’m here and we’ll go get cleaned up, when you’re ready to move. There’s no justice in this world, but we both know that.”

“When this is all over I’m gonna find a bear to fight,” Adis murmured. “Either I can take it down, or it’ll kill me and I’ll die with honor. If I survive, I’ll make its skin into a shirt.”

“I thought you told me last week that you were going to get yourself a cottage and some chickens.” Reni held her hand against Adis' forehead. “You’re running hot. I think you need water.”

“Don’t need water,” Adis croaked. “And I can do both. I want a cottage so I’ll have somewhere to go back to. My parents’ cottage burned down, remember?”

"You're going to drink water. Then, you'll change out of that dress. We'll see if there's enough time for a bath. After you get some sleep, we'll all talk."

"What about Jano and Valia? Will they..."

Reni's expression was grim, but there was only sorrow in it. "You can see them after you rest. Jano got his wounds rinsed out with fortified wine and stitched up. He didn't bleed much. Valia, you just knocked her out. You turned on Jano before you could do anything worse."

"Thank the gods." Adis sighed. "I'm more trouble than I'm worth. The Captain should let me go."

Reni swallowed, and the hand on the girl's shoulder tightened. "You're not too much trouble."

Adis clenched her teeth and screwed her eyes shut in a valiant effort to stop crying. "I am, though. I always need someone to tell me what to do. I need tasks, orders, anything. Otherwise..."

"I know, beautiful. It's hard." Reni untied a pouch from her belt and pulled out a heel of bread. "Can you sit up and eat this for me?"

Her charge nodded. "Yes, Reni. Thank you." She slumped against Reni's sturdy form, gnawing on the dry, crusty bread that the knight was familiar with from many years of campaigns. After years on a steady diet of that bread, it would not have been much of a stretch to train oneself to bite through shields.

As the knight watched the guardswoman care for the berserker girl, he thought back to what he knew of their kind. Willing to charge the ranks of the enemy with only a spear or club, without a care for their own safety. When they shifted into their rage, they could not distinguish between friend and foe. They feared neither fire nor iron. And they were made, not born.


End file.
